Psychic Hotlines
I have a friend who believes in psychics. I am always telling him if this psychic stuff is real, why do they ask “Who may I say is calling?” when they answer the phone. My friend’s comeback is always the same. Psychics don’t answer their own phones. They use mere mortals to do that.
Fair enough.
Well, whether or not psychics can read the future, they can surely read human beings. The bad ones know how to milk the unsuspecting mark for everything he or she’s worth (That’s right, it’s like The Wizard of Oz; there are good psychics and bad psychics). One way they can do this is through clever telemarketing scams. One technique they use is the cold call. They call your home offering a “free” psychic reading. They obtain your name, birth date and other pertinent information (again, shouldn’t they now this stuff without asking? Right?) The psychic then gives a short, but sweet “reading” that says your future looks bright, full of tall, dark strangers, good luck and a special gift that you are about to receive. Or the free reading may take a darker route, warning you of celestial curses, unemployment and all-around bad juju.
A big bill is in your future
The phone psychic then invites you to call their 900 number for a more thorough reading of the tea leaves. If you accept, be forewarned that these 900 number calls mean the meter is now running. (And I see in your future a giant phone bill.) Once you are a paying customer, the reading goes at a much slower speed. You learn the tall, dark stranger’s eye color, hobbies and favorite sports franchise. Or you are given a special incantation to ward off evil. Often times, even if you decline this 900 number ball-gazing call, they still send you a big bill hoping you will pay it. After all, scammers have no scruples.
Scam warning signs
Telephone scams come in all shapes and sizes, but here are a few warning signs:
- The person on the phone call claims to have some sort of special insight into you.
- The person claims you have been cursed or jinxed (they may offer to remove this curse or jinx themselves or give you the name of someone else who can do so).
- You may be offered a good luck charm, the secret to enormous wealth, magic potions or winning lottery numbers.
- You might be asked to pay a small administration fee to collect your charm, potion or lottery numbers.
- The person claims to be both a psychic and an Ethiopian prince who wants to share his giant inheritance with you.
Warding off scammers
Phone scams play on three basic traits of human nature: loneliness, gullibility and greed. You don’t need a rabbit’s foot to ward off these scams, just common sense. Here are few good rules of thumb.
- If it looks too good to be true—Guess what? It probably is.
- Never give out personal information to a telemarketer.
- Always get advice from a trusted friend if an offer involves significant money, time or commitment.
- Remember there are no get-rich-quick schemes: the only people who make money in these deals are the scammers themselves.
- Do not agree to offers or deals without thinking it over a day or two.
- Never send money, or give credit card or online account details to anyone you do not know and trust.
- Do not give out your personal credit card or online account details over the phone unless you made the call and the phone number came from a trusted source.
- Never call a telephone number that you see in a spam email.
Follow these pointers and you will not become easy prey for these psychic con artists. Then, sit back and let the future do what it does best––surprise us.
Questions and Answers
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Used to be, if you were going through personal problems you might visit a priest. People with more money than faith would often see a shrink. Then in 1953, an English vicar had an epiphany. Why not create a “hotline” where people contemplating suicide could ring up a counselor anytime they were feeling blue? No charge.
These days more and more home phones come with a built-in voicemail function. It’s like having an invisible answering machine at your house. The only problem is, like the old-school answering machine, these built-in mailboxes require that most humiliating of tasks: recording your voicemail greeting.
During the Cold War, school kids had frequent “bomb drills” where they learned how to, in a calm and orderly manner, slide under their desks and put their hands over their heads. How this was going to protect us from a thermo-nuclear holocaust is anyone’s guess. The point is, we ran the drill. We were prepared for the worst. Today, large companies develop comprehensive evacuation plans, appoint floor captains and conduct regular “fire drills.” The day the building is engulfed in flames, that com
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